//------------------------------//
// 5: Destiny Awaits 
// Story: A New World, A New Family 
// by Lance Skyes 
//------------------------------//

	”Promise me one thing, Kangaskhan... No matter what, make sure you do whatever is best for our child."

Kanga awoke with a start, almost swearing she had been awake when she heard Meganium's last words just then. But that wasn't the case. That was the end of her dream. The words she heard were spoken almost 2 years ago, and now are little more than echos in the Kangaskhan's mind. But it was now more than ever that those words were prominent. Roo was lost, and Kanga was doing everything she could to be reunited with her daughter.
But there was more. Felix. Kanga knew that she and Felix being in a more serious relationship would help raise Roo better. But after what happened the night prior...
Kanga just sighed as she finally registered the morning sunlight on her eyelids, breaking her train of thought. She shielded her eyes with her hand as she opened them and slowly got up, still really tired due to how little rest she actually got that night. Looking to her left, she saw Pinky sat up against a tree, still sound asleep. At least, that's what Kanga assumed for a second until she remembered that she Dizzy Punched the Slowbro unconscious last night. Kanga smiled as she remembered that moment, a moment for which she had been waiting for a long time. Even if the whole situation with Felix went south, knocking that annoying Slowbro unconscious almost made the whole thing worth it.
Almost.
“Oh good, you're awake,” Kanga heard a voice above her say. She looked up to see Breeze hovering above her. Or was it Butters? The two looked almost completely identical.
“Morning, Breeze,” Kanga said. She figured she guessed the Butterfree's name right since he didn't react much. “I didn't keep you and your brother up last night, did I?”
“Oh no,” Breeze replied. “We got back to sleep a few minutes after you blasted Pinky into our tree. We didn't sleep well, though, mind you. Butterfree have limited psychic abilities, and those make us rather sensitive to certain emotions. Especially hostility.”
“Sorry about that,” Kanga said. “Hey, you wouldn't happen to know where Felix is, would you? He ran off last night, and I was wondering if you got curious and looked for him.”
“No, my brother would be more likely to do that,” Breeze replied. “But even he didn't go looking.”
“Hmm...” Kanga said as she looked down. “I hope he's ok.”
“I'm fine,” a familiar voice said. Both Kanga and Breeze turned to see Felix walking towards the two. He also looked like he didn't get much sleep, but he still had a trace of that natural cheerfulness that's permanently imprinted on a Meganium's face. It didn't hide the stress, though.
Kanga lit up a little when she saw Felix, but the quickly deflated when she remembered why he had run off in the first place. “Um... good morning, Felix,” Kanga said after a short silence in which no one knew what to say.
“Yeah...” Felix replied. “Kanga, I want to apologize for last night. It wasn't right for me to run off like that. I just-”
“Felix, I'm the one who needs to apologize,” Kanga interrupted. “You already had enough going on, and I only made things worse for you. I understand why you ran off, and I'd also understand if you wouldn't be able to forgive me for what I did.”
Felix was silent for an uncomfortable amount of time. So uncomfortable, in fact, that Breeze had to leave. “Kanga...” he finally said. “You have to know that no matter what you do, as long as I can understand your reasoning, I'd forgive you no matter what. Like I said last night, I'd do the same if I was in your position. But...” The Meganium took a deep breath before continuing. “Kanga, we traveled together through most of Kalos, the entirety of Hoenn and Johto, and a small part of Kanto for a grand total of about two years. Over that time, we became best friends. But at the moment, I... want to keep it that way. Us being friends. I'm sorry, and don't take this the wrong way, but I've never been able to imagine myself in a relationship like this, particularly with a Pokemon. (Though I quite frankly never saw a problem with such a thing.)”
“Oh...” Kanga said, looking more than a little defeated.
“But,” Felix continued, “with the present... situation, I might be willing to...” Felix's words seemed to be stopped dead in their tracks at his throat, and his normally green face was gaining an increasingly intense shade of crimson. “I mean, with time, we might be able to... you and I could probably... I'm not saying yes to your proposition, but it's not a definite 'no,' either. I just need time. Time to make sense of this new world where Pokemon didn't exist two days ago and two or three apples will replace lunch, as well as time to figure out this new way life seems to be going all of a sudden. That's all.”
Kanga was silent for a moment as she let her trainer's words sink in. “Thank you, Felix,” she finally said with a slight smile. “Thank you for at least giving me that chance.”
The two probably would have hugged right then had they not been interrupted by an “ahem” from behind them. Both turned around to find Pinky, holding a block of ice she had materialized with Ice Beam to her head and wearing an annoyed expression. “So I take it you two are done with your quarreling for a while?” she asked.
“Um...” Felix started while turning to Kanga, wordlessly asking for an explanation.
“Eh heh...” Kanga said while rubbing the back of her head. “I may or may not have knocked her unconscious last night.”
“I'd go with the first option,” Pinky said. “All I did was ask how your conversation went.”
“And I'm assuming you have your answer,” Kanga replied. She then turned to Felix. “I know, I shouldn't have-”
“We can deal with that another time,” Felix interrupted. “I'm sure you had good reason for your actions, but we're still going to have to address the issue. After we find Roo, of course.” Felix then turned to Pinky. “You said we'd be at that town by noon, right?”
“If we get moving, probably,” Pinky replied, dropping her block of ice. It was right then that Butters and Breeze descended from their tree.
“Is everyone done arguing?” Butters asked.
“I think so,” Felix replied. “Now come on. I wanna find Roo just as much as anyone else here.”
“And put last night as far behind us as possible,” Felix added in his head. Somehow, he figured that the others were thinking the same thing or something along those lines, but he'd never be completely certain.
The five then began resuming their westward course towards the town, Felix and Kanga at the head of the group.
“By the way,” Kanga started to Felix, “where exactly did you run off to last night?”
“Well...” Felix said, looking up at the trees overhead. “It's not really important at the moment. I can tell you later.”
Kanga was fairly confused at what Felix said, but she decided that trying to coax the answer out of him wasn't worth the effort at the moment.

Meanwhile at Ponyville, Roo woke up to a familiar scent. Pancakes.
“Can I have two pancakes today, Felix?” Roo mumbled as she woke up. But as she opened her eyes, she was met with an unfortunate reminder of what happened yesterday. Felix, Kanga, and the others were still gone, and she was still at Lyra and Bon Bon's house. She probably would have cried if she was a year younger, but she was two years old now. Fairly old in Pokemon years. Still young, of course, but also too old for crying.
After realizing this, something else hit her. As the sleep fell from her eyes, she noticed a row of vertical wooden bars in front of her. She quickly sat up to find that these bars were all around her. Was she in prison? She got curious about prison and asked Felix about it once in the past, and the description he gave was fairly close to her current situation. Aside from the bars being wooden... as well as a mattress underneath her, small sheets covering her, and a pillow where her head was before she stood up.
“Wait a second...” Roo thought out loud. “This isn't prison.” The baby Kangaskhan rolled her eyes and chuckled to herself. “It's just a crib. Some of Tartar's pessimism must have rubbed off on me over the years.”
Roo probably would have tried to find some way to get out of there at that point, but it was right then that a door on the far end of the room Roo was in opened. Roo turned around to see Lyra walking into the room.
“Oh, Roo, you're awake,” she said, her face brightening up a little. “Good morning.”
“Um... would you mind explaining why I'm in a crib?” Roo asked.
Lyra looked at Roo with a look of confusion for a moment before saying, “My translation spell must have worn off overnight. Looks like I'll have to work on it.” Lyra then cantered over to the crib Roo was in. “Before you panic, I'm just going to lift you out of there.”
“Why would I pa-” Roo started, but she was cut off when Lyra gripped her in magic and levitated the baby Kangaskhan out of the crib and onto the pony's back. “Ah, now I can see where you'd think I was going to panic.” In truth, the whole “levitation” thing happened to Roo quite often thanks to Pinky.
“Hope you're hungry, Roo,” Lyra said as she began trotting out of the room with the baby Kangaskhan on her back. “I decided to whip up another batch of pancakes just for you.”
“Yay! Thank you, Miss Lyra!” Roo cheered as she hugged the back of Lyra's neck.
“Aw, you're welcome,” Lyra replied, guessing solely by Roo's hug that the little one was thanking her.

A few hours passed, morning turned to late morning, and late morning turned to a few minutes prior to noon. It was around this time that Lyra and Bon Bon had decided to take Roo with them to get lunch out. Fortunately, they had a stroller for Roo in their attic, right next to where the crib was.
As they walked, they noticed that Roo wasn't the weirdest thing to show up the day before. As the three made their way through the town, they saw all sorts of Pokemon. A flock of Fletchling and Fletchinder flying overhead, a Delcatty sleeping on a roof snuggled up against two Skitty, a Gallade wearing a baseball cap walking by and giving them a friendly wave, and two Pichu dashing across the road from one alley to another, closely pursued by a Houndour.
“Are you sure you didn't have Pokemon in this town before yesterday?” Roo asked curiously. “They all seem pretty at home here, and the ponies don't seem to be paying them very much mind.”
“Well, Ponyville kinda has that effect sometimes,” Lyra replied with a shrug. “Something weird shows up, and we often hardly blink twice. It's never happened on this scale before, but the ponies here are used to the completely-out-of-left-field. Ponyville just seems to be that kind of town.”
It was right then that the two were approached by a gray pegasus carrying a notepad. “Hi Lyra, hi Bon Bon,” Derpy said as she flew over to and landed in front of them.
“Hello, Derpy,” Bon Bon said. “What's the notepad for?”
“A friend of mine asked me to go around and document all I can about the creatures that showed up yesterday,” Derpy replied. She then looked down at Roo. “I don't think I've seen something like you before. Would you mind telling me what you are? I mean, I know you're a Pokemon, so don't give me that.”
“I'm a Kangaskhan,” Roo replied.
“Kangaskhan...” Derpy said as she flipped through her notes. “That's odd.”
“What is?” Lyra asked, deciding not to ask how the mailmare how she could understand Roo, opting to believe that her translation spell affected everyone Roo talked to.
“I think I already have notes on a Kangaskhan,” Derpy replied. “And from what I remember of it, the one I saw looks nothing like this one.”
“Huh?” Roo asked. “Wait a second, was the Kangaskhan you saw huge, brown, and had an empty belly pouch?”
“Yes,” Derpy replied. “Is that what you're supposed to grow up to be or something?”
“Yes, but that's not it,” Roo replied. “I think you saw Mamma!” Roo then leapt out of her stroller and ran up to Derpy. “Tell me where you saw her!”
Derpy took a step back, surprised by the baby Pokemon's sudden actions, but was still able to tell her, “I saw her a few streets over that way.” Derpy pointed to the east. “If it helps, she was with two huge butterflies, a pink cat thing with something biting her tail, and a large green dinosaur flower.”
“One of those is probably Pinky,” Roo said to herself. She then scratched her chin and thought. “One of those 'butterflies' sounds like it could be that Butterfree I was playing with yesterday, and the other one might be its Metapod brother. 'Large green dinosaur flower' sounds almost like a Meganium, but who would that be?”
“Roo?” Lyra asked, snapping the baby Kangaskhan back to reality. “Are they your missing family?”
“I'm almost positive,” Roo replied with a nod. She then turned around and shouted “I'm coming, Mamma!” before dashing off at a speed that could have made Rainbow Dash jealous.
“Roo, wait!” Lyra shouted as she galloped off after Roo, Bon Bon following closely.
Derpy just stood there for a moment, looking a little bit confused. “Hm...” she finally said. “I'd better get back to work. Don't want to upset the Doctor for the 12th time this week.” She then looked up and took off after a flock of Swablu and Altaria.

Meanwhile, Felix and the others were making their way through Ponyville, all five of them on alert for Roo.
“For a world that didn't have Pokemon two days ago, there sure are a lot here,” Felix commented. “All these strangely-colored Ponytas and Rapidashes are a little puzzling, though.”
“That one's actually more obvious,” Pinky said. “These Ponytas and Rapidashes are this planet's indigenous species. That explains why we've never seen anything like them before.”
“I guess it would also explain why most of them just stared at us with confused expressions when we tried talking to them,” Felix added. “That gray one being an exception, but-”
“Mamma!” the group heard a voice squeak loudly from down the road they were walking. All of them turned to find Roo running towards them at top speed.
“Roo!” Kanga shouted as she began dashing forward as well. Just before the two collided, Roo jumped up and Kanga caught her daughter in a massive Ursaring hug.
“I missed you, Mamma,” Roo said as she hugged her mother.
“I missed you too, Roo,” Kanga replied.
It was then that Felix and the others caught up to the two. “Roo, I'm so glad you're alright,” Felix said. “You have no idea how relieved we are.”
Kanga released Roo from the hug and the child quickly hopped back into her mother's pouch. “I'm relieved you guys found me, too,” Roo replied. “You won't believe what I-”
“Roo!” another voice shouted from the same direction Roo had run in from. All six of the Pokemon turned to see two of the Ponyta-like creatures galloping towards them. However, both of them skidded to a stop when they saw all the Pokemon Roo was with. “What the...?” the tan-colored one said as she took a step back.
For the longest time, both parties stood in an awkward silence, neither side knowing quite what to say. For the Pokemon, they were trying to process a) what these creatures were, b) how they knew Roo, and c) why they seemed to be chasing Roo. For Lyra and Bon Bon, they were just trying to process how strange what they were assuming to be Roo's “family” looked, given the fact that four out of the five looked nothing like her.
Then Kanga stepped forward.
“Um... hello.” the Kangaskhan said. But all the ponies heard was a familiar “Kan... Kanga.”
“Hello to you too,” Lyra said. “Before this conversation goes any further, you need to know that we can't understand you.”
“That'd explain all those confused expressions those other Ponyta creatures gave us,” Pinky thought out loud.
“So I'm guessing you're called Slowbro,” Lyra said as she turned to Pinky. “And judging by your color, I'm also going to guess you're this 'Pinky' character Roo told us about.”
”That would be correct,” a voice suddenly said from within Lyra's mind.
“Ah!” Lyra shouted as she recoiled back from the sudden “intrusion,” as she would later describe it.
”Funny,” the voice continued. ”Felix has that exact same reaction every time I telepathically communicate with him.”
“Telepathic communication?” Lyra asked. “So you're some kind of psychic or something?”
“Are you talking to one of them?” Bon Bon asked her marefriend.
“Yes I am,” Lyra replied. “That Slowbro, Pinky, is a psychic.”
It was then that Pinky stepped forward and held her hand out to the two of them. “It's nice to meet you two,” Pinky said as she shook Bon Bon's hoof, followed by Lyra's. ”Having sorted through your memories, I can see you two are the ones who have been taking care of Roo for the past day, and I'd like to thank you for that on behalf of the rest of us.”
“Wha-?” Bon Bon asked. “How did you...?”
”Psychic. Remember?” Pinky replied.
“Pinky,” Felix said as he stepped forward. “How many times do I have to tell you that it's bad manners to sort through the memories of someone you've just met.”
“I've lost count,” Pinky replied with a shrug. “Shelly probably knows, but she's not talking anytime soon.” The Shellder simply blinked once in response to hearing her name.
“Alright, so you're Meganium,” Bon Bon concluded as she stepped towards Felix. “Nice to meet you. And if no one's said this yet, let me be the first to say that you are incredibly adorable and I'd like permission to hug you.”
Felix stepped back a little in response to this. “Uh... permission denied,” he replied. “Sorry.”
One translation courtesy of Pinky later, “Alright. I understand,” Bon Bon replied.
There was another brief pause before Lyra spoke up. “I don't think we've done any proper introductions,” the unicorn said. “My name is Lyra Heartstrings, and this is my marefriend, Bon Bon Sweetiedrops.”
“Marefriend?” Felix asked. “Oh, you mean like mates. I get it.”
”My name is Pinky, as you know,” Pinky said. ”This Meganium is named Felix, the adult Kangaskhan is named Kanga, Roo you already know, and these two Butterfree are named Butters and Breeze.”
“Nice to meet you two,” Breeze said.
“Do you have any apples?” Butters asked, earning him a slap on the back of the head from his brother. “Ow! What was that for?”
“You don't just ask for food from people you just met,” Breeze replied. “It's rude.”
“Those two are brothers,” Lyra concluded. When the others turned and looked at Lyra in confusion, she explained, “Well even if all I heard was 'Butterfree,' they still act in a mildly hostile way that only siblings can trust each other to act.” She then turned to Felix and Kanga. “And from that same deduction, I'm guessing you two are Roo's parents.”
Both Kanga and Felix quickly looked in opposite directions in response to this. “It's, um...” Felix said nervously. “It's a bit... odd right now.”
Lyra looked at the two with a curious expression for a moment, then looked back at Pinky. “Excuse me, but what did they say?” she asked the Slowbro. Pinky didn't respond, however. She was instead looking upwards and to the south.
“Pinky?” Felix asked as he noticed the same thing. “Is something wrong?”
“I... don't know,” Pinky replied, not turning back to the others. “Whether something's wrong or not, however, you all might want to brace yourselves. We're all about to be hit by a huge wave of psychic energy.”
“What do you mean by that?” Felix asked inquisitively.
“I mean-” Pinky started.
”Greetings citizens of Equus, both new and old,” a voice that could only be described as powerful boomed from within everyone's minds.
“That,” Pinky deadpanned. “That's what I mean.”